I’m about to sound like the ignorant American I am, so I apologize in advance! We’re looking at a trip to Germany, and possibly Prague, and we’ve noticed that a lot of the hotel names are French and a couple hotels that aren’t named in French have replied to comments with things like “Bonjour! etc etc” What’s up with this? Is French just the most commonly spoken common language, even in Germany and Czechia? (I know that Germany and Czechia have their own languages, of course.) Or is it something else?
Ahem. You can use a french name to sound posh. Like bakeries all over the world do it. Other than that, I can guarantee you 90% of germans won’t speak french and despise the french people for not speaking english. So no. Most germans won’t speak french unless you find a way to force them. Cordialement… moi. Je suis Allemand.
(Edit: You can show me an example of a question and a german reply and maybe I can tell you what went wrong…)
You’re American. Marketing data says that you like all things French and Italian.
Guess what happens next in this salesforce driven industry?
:)
East of Munich you’re best bet is German, but English is also spoken widely. West of Munich you’re more or less fine with English. In the northern countries we are used to the fact no one speaks our language so we all speak English, a lot of people French and a lot of German because it’s close to our own.
Italians try English. As do most Spanish. Try is the magic word here, it’s like your Spanish after high school or my French. :)
French don’t try. They speak French. Period. In hotels etc. (tourist spots) English is spoken by few employees. But they are there. :)
In the balkans the situation is mixed. Some parts English, some German, some French, some Russian. I get by with an English/German mix in Croatia. my German is better then my French… But not a lot). Here in the Netherlands my level of German is widely called “steenkolen Duits” (coal German) because it’s course, harsh, hard and dirty)
Anyway you’ll be fine. Have a great vacation.
Yep, we try English. We are not very good at it (thanks Mussolini) and the situation is not gonna improve. But you’ll survive, even here. Last time I was in a hotel here a foreigner was communicating with the receptionist via Google Translate ;p
Mussolini came to power a hundred years ago. That’s one century. It takes a couple of years to learn English to a passable degree. How can Mussolini possibly be blamed for how badly Italians speak English today?
